Should L.A. Host the 2024 Olympics?

Mayor Eric Garcetti will be part of a delegation that will meet with leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee in Colorado tomorrow to discuss the city's effort to become the nation's bidder for the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Garcetti is scheduled to fly to Colorado Springs tonight to take part in the meeting.

"We look forward to meeting with the United States Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs to discuss how we can present the strongest possible bid for our nation," he said.

Boston, Washington and San Francisco are also in the running and are expected to send representatives to Colorado Springs to meet with USOC CEO Scott Blackmun and committee chair Larry Probst.

The delegations are expected to tour the Olympic Training Center and discuss infrastructure and financing required to host the Games.

If Los Angeles is chosen to make the U.S. bid, and is ultimately chosen as host, it would become the first American city to stage the Games three times and tie it with London as the only worldwide city to do so. Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics in 1932 and 1984.

If a U.S. city is selected for the 2024 Olympics, it would be the first time since the 1996 Atlanta Games that the Summer Olympics have been held in this country. The 2002 Winter Games were held in Salt Lake City.

The cost of hosting an Olympic Games could exceed $3 billion, Blackmun said last year when the organization sent out feelers to mayors of 35 U.S. cities considered potential hosts.

Host cities are required to provide at least 45,000 hotel rooms, an Olympic Village with rooms for 16,500 people and a 5,000-person capacity dining area, space for 15,000 media and broadcast representatives, an international airport able to handle thousands of international travelers per day, public transportation to venues and roadway closures.

--City News Service